What is AJHQ Trying to do?

Hey jammers! I barely went on the computer at ALL yesterday, wow... I really need to get up to date with this. I still have a Berry the Koala entry to write, but I guess it's a little too late for that now.

What I mean by that is tomorrow I'm going away for a week, until the 27th of August to be exact. I'm not sure what my wifi situation will be there, but because of the different timezones my posting will be a bit off. And I mean a bit more off than usual.

I have pages to update, comments to answer, and a Berry the Koala entry following– but I think I'll pass on that TODAY and just spend the whole day catching up with friends on AJ. I know, it's a bit selfish because I know a lot of you have been waiting patiently for me to post your blog to the "More Blogs" page, update the BOTM page, as well as the Rarity section...

But trust me, that will all be done in the near future!

I just haven't been playing the actual game as much and I've missed out on a lot because I don't get to use the computer as much anymore.

Ok, enough with this. It's time for what you came here for: the Rare Item Monday!

Every week on Monday there is a semi-rare item hidden in stores for you to discover. But be quick, in a day it will be gone!

While these are called Rare Item Mondays, the items aren't really rare themselves and because of their weird coloring, they don't go into very high demand unless they are a NEW item i.e. Nerd Glasses, a very popular item at the moment... yadda yadda yadda. Moving on!

A bit late with the flip flops, don't you think? It's almost the end of summer, for me at least. These are sold in Jam Mart Furniture. Kind of a weird color scheme, too...

If you have been playing a while, a few years or so, you'll ultimately see all of the change thats happening. You can be critical of it, yes, but more than often you can't really fight the tide.

Something AJHQ has been doing recently has really set some people off: bringing back betas. 

It may sound a little petty, but it isn't about being "rare" or not, it's about trading, which actually in many cases can be the same thing. Betas are a staple in trading, and betas are dream items in trading as well. By taking away dream item rarity, you kind of make endeavors for that item very anticlimactic, and because the rarity is taken away it isn't as special in some people's eyes.

It can also be kind of a shock when the very item people have sought after for so long– your whole time on AJ –is brought into stores to be bought for a few gems. 

Now if you take away trading staples, you make any beta that hasn't come out yet both incredibly unattainable but unrare at the same time. It's because there's that impending doom of any beta coming out that it's best not to even trade for them.

This can make the whole trading system boring and useless.

This may or may not be AJHQ's goal. I'm pretty sure by now they know how high priority trading is for the bulk of the users. Taking away trading would cause a massive drop in users, and in turn reduce the money they make off of this game. They may be receiving complaints that AJ is a little materialistic, too scam-ish, but taking away the biggest items? Making players not want to even trade anymore?

While AJ is fun on its own, trading is the icing on the cake. Trading helps you meet new users, form new relationships, and trading itself is what AJ was built upon. Remove the foundation and the building shatters.

If this is all true, and this is what AJ is trying to do... I don't even know anymore. I don't trade much myself, but really... It's almost as bad as removing mini games.

Tell me what you think about this in the comments!

Until next time, see you in Jamaa!

~Doomy